WEBSTER PARISH

Speech Therapy

Speech therapy services are provided for the following disorders when there is documented evidence that the impairment significantly interferes with the student's educational performance or developmental functioning to a degree inappropriate for his or her cultural or social background or overall developmental level. Dialectal variations alone do not qualify a student to be classified as having a speech or language impairment.

Articulation: Non-maturational speech disorder of one or more phonemes characterized by consistent omission or incorrect production of speech sounds.

Language: Impaired receptive, integrative, or expressive disorder of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, or pragmatics. A student shall exhibit a deficit of at least 1.5 standard deviations below the mean based on chronological age. If the student is functioning below age level in all areas, developmental functioning levels should be considered.

Fluency: Inappropriate rate and time patterning of speech at least 5% of the time. Fluency is characterized by any of the following: sound and syllable repetitions, sound prolongations, audible or silent blocking, interjections, broken words, circumlocutions, or words produced with an excess of tension and accompanied by ancillary movements that are indicative of stress or struggle. A student exhibiting normal non-fluencies occurring during the developmental speech stage does not meet this criterion.

Voice: Any inappropriate consistent deviation in pitch, intensity, quality or the basic phonatory or resonatory attribute. In order to qualify for voice therapy, the parent of the student must obtain a recommendation from an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) physician indicating the need for Speech therapy.